( 9th March 2024 )
Continuing on the imageries of the Holy Spirit
●Imagery: Fire
●In many instances in the Bible, whenever we see God’s glory ,we also see fire being mentioned.
●In the New Testament in Mathew 3:11, we see John the Baptist speaking about Jesus as being the Baptizer
●A Baptizer by Fire 🔥
●In fact ,John the Baptist introduced Jesus as the “Baptizer “
●Here he infact speaks about the ministry of Jesus Christ.
●Luke 3:16 Again mentions this statement of John the Baptist, where he says in the Bible, “
He(Jesus)will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire”
●In the same chapter, in Verse 17, it is said
” But the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.”
●All the unnecessary things remaining in us will be burned 🔥 by fire.
●We also notice that in the future,in eternity, fire will be used for Jugement .
● Fire will burn up the chaff – chaff actually are things in us that are not pleasing to God.
●What happens in Acts 2 is actually fulfillment of John the Baptist’s prophesy about Jesus.
●When the Holy Spirit manifested on the 120 who waited in the upper room , tounges of “fire” appeared on them.
●In Acts 2:3, we see that the 120 were commissioned, and then the tounges of fire 🔥 descended on them
●In the Old Testament, we see that when priests were commissioned- they were anointed with oil
●Oil here symbolizes the Holy Spirit.
●When Moses was commissioned by God to lead the Israielites out of Egypt, he was first summoned by a “Fire” in a burning 🔥 bush on the top of Mount Horeb.
●Fire can represent the Glory of God.
●The most important representation with respect to the Children of God is the “Glory of God “
●●The Glory of God will be manifested through you !!
•Exodus 24:17 “sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel”
●We see that fire manifested on Mount Sainai .
●The fire the people saw in this verse on the mountain was a manifestation of God’s glory.
●In Habakkuk 2:14, speaks about the earth being filled with the glory of God, just like the sea being covered by water .
●But the element that is most commonly used to represent the Glory of God is fire 🔥
•In the Old Testament, when the Israielites were in the wilderness, they were protected by the Glory of God
The children of Israel were protected by :
●The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night
as said in Exodus 13
“He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.”
●As the Israielites traveled through the wilderness, they would have faced unbearable climatic conditions
●But in the morning, they were covered by the pillar of cloud, which protected them from the extreme heat
●Again in the night ,the pillar of fire 🔥 gave them both light to see and heat to protect from the extreme cold in the desert at night
●There was no source of light during the night in those ancient days
●Supernatural light was provided for them in the night by the pillar of fire.
●The pillar of fire protected the children of Israel from Pharaoh and his army !
●The Word of God says that ” fire ” represents the glory of God
●Different words are used to describe fire in various languages
In Swedish ,fire is called ” Brand”. Similarly in :
Greek -Fotia
Hebrew-ES
Arabic- Nav
Spain -fugeo
Portuguese- Fogo
Sankrant – Agni
Hindi – Aag
●Fire is often used as an imagery of the Holy Spirit
●Thessalonians 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit.
•Quench means to put out 🔥 fire
●When the Holy Spirit comes into you, you will experience a passion for the things of the kingdom of God .
●Ephesians 4:30 says do not grieve the Holy Spirit
●It is widely believed that 1 Thessalonians is the first letter written by Paul the Apostle
●Act 16 : is the 1st visit of the Apostle Paul to Europe
He came to Philippi
●In Acts 17, we see that Paul goes to Thessalonica . After may be 3 weeks or more he preached in Thessalonica and then, due to persecution, he has to leave Thessalonica and move to Beriah, he then has to move to Athens and then had to move and stay in Corinth about one and a half years
So he could be in the Thessalonica for only about a month, and the belivers in the church there were only in the very early stages of their Christian life.
So, as Paul was in Corinth ,he wrote a letter to the people of Thessalonica. In 1 Thess he writes , “Don’t quench the Spirit.” He obviously taught them about the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
●So please understand
•The fire is in you
•The passion is in you
•The zeal is in you
Do not quench them !
●Do not Quench the Spirit !
- If you lose the passion to preach the Word of God , you can consider yourself dead to the work of the Lord. It is better that you leave.
● Without the fire, your ministry is dead. There is no real point in continuing
●One can grieve the Holy Spirit by acts of both Omissions and commission,
●Omission is failing to do what the Holy Spirit tells you to do
●Commission is acting against the will of the Holy Spirit
●Quenching is like pouring water on fire.
●So concerning maintaining the fire Holy Spirit, you are supposed to sustain it by doing acts like “prayer,” which is extremely important in sustaining the fire of the Holy Spirit, without prayer you are infact quenching the Holy Spirit
●If the Holy Spirit is in you, then the fire is in you.
●Baptism by fire will bring about changes in your actions, prayer life, and ministry
●Focus on the Word of God, zeal will increase on its own , and passion for ministry will increase as the fire in you increases
●It’s only through the Holy Spirit that you can succeed in your ministry
God Bless